Local News

Drought biggest story of year in Morgan County

Water, missing teen, stormwater, Wayward Wind also big stories

ByDAN BARKER Times News Editor

Posted:
12/31/2012 09:39:38 AM MST

Wheat growers avoided the worst of the drought, and the harvest was bigger than expected, but many farmers suffered across the U.S., and cattle producers and dairies had extremely high feed costs.
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Each year, The Fort MorganTimes reviews the major stories of the previous year. That begins with what staffers think are the big stories of the year.

Drought

Although many Morgan County farmers did OK despite the drought, cattle production is the foundation of the Morgan County economy -- and it was hit hard last summer.

The cost of hay jumped as high as $300 a ton, up from the usual $100 a ton. On top of that, since the drought hit just about every agricultural sector in every state, there was little alfalfa to ship in. Feed like corn and wheat had high costs, too.

That meant some beef cattle producers had to sell off herds to avoid even more serious financial problems, and dairies' production costs soared.

Drops of rain show how precipitation came to Morgan County in September, just in time to help the wheat crop germinate for next yearâ s crop and to help out corn growers.
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Dryland farmers were also hit hard. While dryland winter wheat growers seemed to dodge the bullet at the last minute with some rain in May, right after that was when the real drought hit. In addition, dryland corn growers had little success with their crops.

Nonetheless, irrigated farms did pretty well. The wheat crop was lower than last year, but not bad, and irrigated corn did well with all the sunshine it had.

Crop prices held, which was a big help to crop producers, but not for cattle producers.

The federal government did offer emergency loans and allowed reserved conservation land to be used for pastures for cattle, but that only helped so much. A representative of the U.S.

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Department of Agriculture came to town to talk about what the feds could do, but said that was limited due to the national budget issues.

Lower local production could mean the local economy could suffer some.

One bright spot is that rain in the fall allowed the coming year's winter wheat crop to germinate, giving it a head start for the new year.

Missing teen

Fort Morgan's Kayla Chadwick, then 17, went missing on March 28, and quite a few locals responded by volunteering to search for her -- and local law enforcement continues to pursue the case.

Kayla Chadwick, then 17, went missing in March and has not been seen since, despite extensive searches.
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Crime Stoppers and local residents offered $7,500 in rewards for any information that would lead to the return of Chadwick.

Chadwick was last seen by her boyfriend, Ivan Torrralba, 18, in the area of the 19500 block of Morgan County Road R.7 in the late evening hours, Fort Morgan police reported. She had been in an argument with Torralba, and he said she left him in that area.

Volunteers searched the area several times, spreading out across the county, but had no luck.

Police said they had received many tips on the case, but nothing led to discovery of Chadwick or her body. Nonetheless, Fort Morgan Police Chief said last week that the investigation continues, and he would appreciate any information anyone might have.

Volunteers in the searchÂ? for missing Fort Morgan teenager Kayla Chadwick bow their heads in prayer before beginning their hunt.
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In late 2012, Torralba was indicted by a grand jury on charges of tampering with physical evidence, attempting to influence a public servant and four counts of first-degree perjury. The grand jury said there was probable cause to believe Torralba had interfered with the investigation by destroying, tampering with or removing evidence. He may have removed or hidden a gun.

No evidence has shown Torralba committed a crime against Chadwick.

Wiggins water

The Wiggins water project was delayed again this year for a variety of reasons, but mostly because the town had to wait for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to approve a plan to put the pipeline for the project through its flood levee.

The Wiggins water project pipeline was stopped as town officials awaited approval of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to put it through the Wiggins flood levee.
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Wiggins officials received notice that the plan was not yet approved in July. It took until December to receive approval for a plan to put the pipe through the levee with a steel sleeve around it to prevent any damage to the levee should there be a leak. In fact, that was the original plan, but the Corps had to examine it.

In the meantime, the town had completed building augmentation ponds to let replacement water go into the South Platte River, and a new water treatment plant was finished. The pipeline was completed, except for the section at the levee.

Wiggins Board of Trustees members have also been working to buy more new water rights, since the town does not have enough new water to meet all its needs.

New water sources are needed because town well levels have been falling for years, and their quality was so bad that the Northeast Colorado Health Department warned residents not to let infants have the water in any form.

Since Wiggins does not have enough new water rights yet, a plan is in motion to blend the old well water with the new water temporarily. That will add to the cost of the project, although the trustees have promised to find ways to pay for that without raising water bills.

Last spring, the town voted to replace most of the trustees and the mayor, and the new board began meeting weekly to make sure it was on top of every move that the contractors and government made. The project pretty much continued as planned, but Wiggins Town Administrator Bill Rogers resigned after continued criticism of his handling of the project.

Public Works Director Jon Richardson took over supervision of the construction part of the project, and now-late Town Clerk Craig Trautwein took over the paperwork.

The drought made things even worse in Wiggins, as its water tank ran dry and water restrictions went into place. That meant the town park and many local lawns were severely damaged by heat, but the town had to have enough water on hand in case of a fire.

Wayward Wind trailers

While life was tough in Wiggins, it was ended at the Wayward Wind mobile home park.

It was scheduled by its owners to close this month. The Board of Morgan County Commissioners waived fees for moving mobile homes and trailers to help out, but many were unable to find other places to move their mobile homes.

The mobile home park faced problems after samples of its well water showed bacterial contamination. In early 2012, the owners of the site were told by the health department to give residents bottled water, but that did not happen. By mid-year, the park was on a boiled water advisory, which meant water should be boiled before use. Later, it was back on a bottled water advisory.

The health department went out with bottled water, and later the owners of the park sent out water trucks, but finally decided to close the park for financial reasons.

Flood issues

Residents of the northwest portion of Fort Morgan have been conferring with some Fort Morgan City Council members on what has been called the ad hoc stormwater committee about how to deal with flooding when unusually high rain occurs.

Members of this committee considered various solutions, and the full council heard the formal recommendation from the committee in June regarding paying for major stormwater infrastructure projects.

The committee members had studied the issue for eight months, taking into consideration studies that have been done, proposed projects and expected costs. The committee also met with experts in engineering, financing and legal matters.

The committee unanimously passed a motion recommending creation of a stormwater utility and doing a feasibility study to determine the level of financial support needed to sustain it.

Such a utility likely would also include establishing a related fee, which then would be used to both build new stormwater infrastructure and maintain the older system, and that would be the subject of the feasibility study.

This was only the recommendation of the ad hoc committee, which included three council members, Mayor Terry McAlister and three city residents.

The committee's job was only to determine how to pay for the projects if the council decided to do them. It will be up to the council to decide what to do.

That could have meant a vote in favor of a stormwater utility, choosing to do smaller projects on a pay-as-you-go basis or doing nothing new for the time being.

And because there were so many possible course of action, McAlister told the council he thought they should take some time before taking any action on the committee's recommendation.

"I think there are a lot of things for the council to think about first before just jumping in with a yes or no," he said.

He recognized that the city does have problems with flooding, but "on the flip side, it's going to cost a lot of money" to fix them, he said.

Later, the council decided to do smaller projects as the city had money for them.

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